Is Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NCI) Going to Burn These Hedge Funds?

As industrywide interest jumped, some big names were breaking ground themselves. SG Capital Management initiated the largest position in Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI). Coe Capital Management also made a $3.7 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are David Dreman’s Dreman Value Management, Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., and Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Resolute Forest Products Inc (NYSE:RFP), EZchip Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ:EZCH), Crossamerica Partners LP (NYSE:CAPL), and City Holding Company (NASDAQ:CHCO). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to NCI’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $128 million, higher than the $55 million in NCI’s case. Resolute Forest Products Inc (NYSE:RFP) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Crossamerica Partners LP (NYSE:CAPL) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE:NCI) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard RFP might be a better candidate to consider a long position.